With more than one million page views and more than 4,000 items, this blog provides news and commentary on public policy, business and economic issues related to the $3 billion California stem cell agency, officially known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM). David Jensen, a retired California newsman, has published this blog since January 2005. His email address is djensen@californiastemcellreport.com.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

The state of California's first-ever venture into a clinical trial involving human embryonic stem cells garnered more than the usual news coverage last week for the Golden State's $3 billion stem cell research effort.

At least more than usual for the stem cell agency, which has received modest attention in the mainstream media in recent years.

The $25 million loan to Geron Inc. of Menlo Park, Ca., drew articles in newspapers ranging from the Los Angeles Times to the San Francisco Business Times. However, the story was ignored by the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News and The Sacramento Bee, based on our searches. That despite the fact that the circulation areas of the San Francisco and San Jose papers include the headquarters of both Geron and the California stem cell agency.

The lack of coverage by those papers undoubtedly is a reflection of the current overtaxed nature of the newspaper business along with the difficulty of peddling stem cell research stories to reporters and editors.

Keith Darce of the San Diego Union-Tribune had most developed story that we saw. It included comments from another stem cell company and termed the award "historic." Darce also pointed out that the loan is part of CIRM's effort to help stem cell companies through what is known as a financial valley of death – a period in which it is difficult to find conventional financing.

Eryn Brown at the Los Angeles Times, the state's largest newspaper and which has paid scant attention to CIRM, wrote,

"John M. Simpson, a consumer advocate with Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica, Calif., said that making a loan to support a clinical trial made sense. While his group has worried in the past about awards becoming 'boondoggles,' he said in this case Geron's trial was vetted carefully and the company met the requirements needed for funding. 'It could provide cures. That's what everyone wants,' he said. 'I'm watching it with interest.'"

CIRM's press release quoted outgoing agency Chairman Robert Klein as describing the state's investment as a "landmark step." But he cautioned that severe setbacks could be encountered. He said,

"We need to be prepared to stand by the heroic patients and the companies as they face these challenges and solve the problems that stand in the way of the recovery of patients from paralysis."

Over the last year, Klein has talked up another bond issue for CIRM that could total as much as $5 billion. CIRM operates on borrowed money (state bonds), which doubles the real cost of all its activities because of the interest expense.

To win voter approval of a new bond issue will require concrete results, such as those envisioned in the Geron trial, to justify continued state support of stem cell research.

Geron's three-year clinical trial is aimed at assessing the safety of its treatment. Any regular use of the therapy is probably a decade or more away because of the need to test its efficacy and to clear regulatory hurdles. Geron hopes to enroll 10 patients in its trial. The firm picked up its second in Chicago, according to a report this week.

About Me

The California Stem Cell Report is the only nongovernmental website devoted solely to the $3 billion California stem cell agency. The report is published by David Jensen, who worked for 22 years for The Sacramento Bee in a variety of editing positions, including executive business editor and special projects editor. He was the primary editor on the 1992 Pulitzer Prize-winning series, "The Monkey Wars" by Deborah Blum, which dealt with opposition to research on primates. Jensen served as a press aide in the 1974 campaign and first administration of Gov. Jerry Brown. (Time served: two years and one week.) He writes from his sailboat on the west coast of Mexico with occasional visits to land. Jensen began writing about the stem cell agency in 2005, noting that it is an unprecedented effort that uniquely combines big science, big business, big academia, big politics, religion, ethics and morality as well as life and death. The California Stem Cell Report has been identified as one of the best stem cell sites on the Internet. Its readership includes the media (both mainstream and science), a wide range of academic/research institutions globally, the NIH and California policy makers.